PLAY OF THE DAY

SHOOTING STUDS

Dwyane Wade, Heat
114-98 win vs. Celtics
34 pts, 10-17 FG, 13-15 FT

Ray Allen, Sonics
119-106 loss at Bobcats
31 pts, 12-22 FG, 4-4 FT

Melvin Ely & Raymond Felton, Bobcats
119-106 win vs. Sonics
47 pts, 19-27 FG, 2-2 3-pt FG, 7-7 FT

SHOOTING DUDS

Chris Paul, Hornets
99-91 loss at Nets
2-12 FG, 1-3 3-pt FG, 6 pts

Hedo Turkoglu, Magic
94-82 loss at Wizards
2-10 FG, 0-3 3-pt FG, 4 pts

Jason Williams, Heat
114-98 win vs. Celtics
2-9 FG, 0-3 3-pt FG, 4 pts

STAT SHEET STUFFER

Despite a handful of near triple-doubles around the league, Brevin Knight had the best line of the lot. Knight scored 15 points and dished out nine assists - good numbers. He also tied a season high with seven rebounds and had six steals in a game for the third time this year - great numbers. Charlotte won for the second straight time, beating Seattle 119-106 at home.

RICK KAMLA'S FANTASY TAKE

"Marcus Banks is playing so well that Marko Jaric is out of a job. With Jaric on the bench (DNP-CD), Banks got 34 minutes and scored 19 points with a 3-pointer and two steals. If he is still available, get him NOW."

ROOKIE WATCH

Raymond Felton scored 24 points, the most of his young career, and dropped nine dimes to rule the rookie roost on Monday. The most impressive number he had a part in however was two - the number of games Charlotte has won in a row after snapping a 13-game losing streak on Feb. 3. The point guard out of UNC led the Bobcats to a 119-106 win over the visiting Sonics. Fellow Bobcat Melvin Ely has had the best games of his career against Seattle as well. Ely set his previous high in points last season with 22 against the Sonics, and looked super again in setting a new mark with 23 on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor.

GAME OF THE NIGHT

Kevin Garnett has taken his lumps over the last week. KG Struggled throughout a 16-point loss at Detroit; didn't attempt a shot in the final 6:47 in a loss to Portland (despite being 12-for-13 form the field), and watched as his Timberwolves lost by 32 to the then-slumping Warriors. In the midst of Minnesota's three-game road slide, the Big Ticket even came out and expressed his displeasure with team chemistry. Garnett finally had something to smile about on Monday. The Wolves held a four-point lead before the Suns' Boris Diaw hit a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left to cut it to 100-99. Garnett responded with a tough turnaround jumper with Kurt Thomas draped all over him to push the lead back to three with 32 ticks on the clock. Steve Nash followed, scoring two of his season-high 31 points with a layup to make it a one-point game again. KG then hit one of two foul shots to set up the final sequence. Nash squeezed a beautiful bounce pass into Shawn Marion (14 points, 12 rebounds, career-high eight steals) who shot a tear drop in the lane that Garnett swatted into the stands as time expired to preserve the Timberwolves' 103-101 road win. The 2004 NBA MVP finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT

"He's Dwyane Wade. He's a good player. He's athletic. He attacks. It's who he is. I thought we did a pretty good job on him up until the end. I thought we were forcing him to take shots from the outside. (The Heat) see the young players on the floor guarding him and they attack them. That is exactly what Wade did and that is what he should do."

-- Boston coach Doc Rivers assesses the play of the Heat's Dwyane Wade, who finished with 34 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in the Celtics' 114-98 loss in Miami.

STORYLINES OF THE NIGHT

1. Magnificent Meadowlands
The Nets treat visiting teams with win streaks sort of the same way that stadium security guards treat patrons with coolers - they make them leave their Coleman at the turnstyle. That is to say, when you come to New Jersey on a tear, don't expect to extend it. Byron Scott returned to the Meadowlands for the first time as a visiting coach on Monday after spending three and a half seasons at the helm for the Nets. He brought his Hornets and their four-game win streak. The Nets helped themselves to a 99-91 victory. The win was the Nets' 11th straight at home and the third time they've snatched a win streak from an opponent, adding to their collection of Detroit's 11-wins and Miami's five-game streak. The contest also featured an intriguing match-up at point guard. Twelve-year veteran Jason Kidd's near triple-double (14 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds), upstaged rookie Chris Paul, who managed to dish out 13 assists but shot only 2-for-12 from the field.

2. Gordon Bleu
The Bulls' Ben Gordon followed up a career-high 39 points against the Suns with 35 points against Utah on Monday. Gordon had been criticized by the Chicago media for not being enough of an offensive leader this season. Everyone is happy in Chi-town now, right? Wrong. Despite Gordon's point production, Chicago dropped its fourth straight, losing in Utah 107-105 in overtime. Gordon hit a 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds left in the fourth to send it to OT. His trey wasn't the biggest shot of the night, however. In the extra period, Utah's Mehmet Okur nailed a three with less than a second left to secure the victory. "It's a real tough loss," Gordon said. "Every game is like a must-win for us right now. We're having a bad losing streak right now and we need to get ourselves out of it before we get back to Chicago."

3. Back to .500
Every team starts off the season with the same amount of wins and losses. The Wizards are back to the same place 46 games into the year. Washington evened its record at 23-23 after beating Orlando 94-82 at home. With 11 rebounds and six steals, the ball seemed to be finding Antawn Jamison's hands. Maybe he was using the "accio" spell from Harry Potter, a summoning charm, used to make objects fly straight to the spell caster. Hey, they were playing the Magic afterall. The Wizards are now in eighth place in the East and back at .500 for the first time since Dec. 6 when they were 8-8. "If we thought that .500 was our ultimate goal, then there is nothing more to achieve," coach Eddie Jordan said. "We really want to keep the momentum going."

COOL/CLUTCH PERFORMANCE

Golden State's 18-point lead dwindled all the way down to six before Derek Fisher stepped up to assure a 122-114 home win over Denver on Monday. D-Fish scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to stave off the Nuggets' rally. The lefty guard hit 3-of-4 foul shots, a jumper and a fingeroll in the final two minutes of the game to lift the Warriors to the winner's circle.

SIXTH MAN OF THE NIGHT

Rasual Butler made the most of his minutes on Monday. The Hornets forward scored in double figures for the third straight game, this time pouring in a season-high 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting in New Orleans/Oklahoma City's 99-91 road loss to the Nets. Butler added five rebounds, two 3-pointers, a block and an assist.